Peacock River, Xinjiang Uygur, China

5Love to Travel 5:00 PM Jul 3, 2019

Busy spot for a stroll
Came here in the evening after dinner. This is a popular spot with the locals. One side is quieter and seems to be more used for jogging. The other side (where we walked) was busy with people strolling, speed walking, a square had an exercise class in full swing and any spare patch was being used for badminton. It was nice to walk around without causing a stir, no ones seemed to be interested in us foreigners.

3Les H 5:00 PM Sep 5, 2017

Nice evening river cruise
Visited Korla with wife and 12 year old daughter. After being driven into the Tianshan Mountains for lunch along the Wulasitai River, then having a sumptuous dinner in a restaurant in/near Korla (unfortunately didn't catch the name; had small cottage-like dining rooms for reserved dining and you could walk around the grounds and see animals in cages... zoo? menu?), we were taken to a landing by the river and enjoyed a late evening river cruise (about 45-60 minutes long). Some (many?) buildings in Korla have light displays at night, and on this cruise you could see those, along with the lighted bridges we passed under. We saw people strolling along the river walk even that late (10:30-11 pm), and the highlight of the evening was the lighted fountain display in the river. It's similar to others that I've seen but still impressive. The boats were not large, holding only about 30 people or so, and a couple of people at a time could go outside forward or aft to see better. I don't recall the exact cost but my wife thought it seemed a bit pricey. Security to enter the boat dock was typical for this area (due to unrest re Muslim minority in Xinjiang): security station at the end of the parking lot was manned by 3 uniformed personnel, check of passport, had to surrender my cigarette lighter (same as in the airports), and I think they had the standard x-ray machine and metal detector which we saw in many restaurants, hotels, and at tourist attractions while visiting Urumqi and Korla in Xinjiang Province. Note that Korla had much more of a police presence than Urumqi... I had to check this a couple of times while driving around but I'm pretty sure the city averaged a police station (small gray building with the red and blue lights) about every 2-3 blocks, at least on major streets. At times we also saw police cars standing by in parking lots or policemen with motorbikes stationed in various places when we drove around. This was in addition to the police checkpoints on the highways or on the edges of neighboring towns which we encountered while being driven around. Separately, there were security guards at gated parking lots and at gated entrances to compounds (residential or mixed residential/other). Overall I'd say the cruise was good, but I've also read the other reviews re walking along the river; I wish we had had time to do that and visit some of the other sights in the city, but we weren't there long enough. I don't recall if there was a name associated with the cruise, but I believe it was located near the intersection of Minsheng Rd and Yan'an Rd. Note that many people in this area don't speak English, and I'm not sure how many tourists they see (we didn't see any other Westerners). At one police checkpoint a young policeman wanted a selfie with me. I thought that was a bit different! (but a few days later, in Xi'an, some Chinese tourists asked for the same thing!)